My best evers are (when I weighed 212 lbs in 2008):Bench Press: 225 lbsDeadlift: 225 lbsHaven't done Squats in years, but I'll tell you my father used to compete locally squatting 575 lbs, so that's my goal These are my goals to work back up to and surpass. Another goal is to compete in a Firefighter's Combat Challenge, somewhere, someday...And for the record, I've been weighing in these days at around 195 lbs.

As for eating, about a week and a half ago I tried to eat as much as I possibly could one day just to see how much that would be. I got to around 3800 calories, and I went to bed still feeling stuffed It wasn't very pleasant. And what I didn't take into account is that it all had to come back out the next day That was miserable.I wrote down everything I ate that day, to calculate the calories, but since I haven't written anything down since, it's probably not very relevant at this point...So I'll start with today.

As a side note, we have this thing at work called the PAT (Physical Agility Test). It is a series of firefighting-related tasks that must be performed in under 5 minutes and 17 seconds. I'll get the distances and weights later, as I don't remember them off the top of my head. You have to do it in full turnout gear with your mask and air pack on, breathing from the mask. This makes it much more difficult, trust me. Instead of your lungs just naturally inflating with the flow of air, you have to practically force in every breath because of the pressure in the mask.

They include:1. Carrying a 14 ft roof ladder (53 lbs) 59 feet and hanging it on a pair of hooks 56 inches off the ground2. Dragging a charged (full of water) firehose 25 feet, while crawling, and then standing and continuing to pull it 50 feet3. The Keyser sled - which simulated forcible entry with an axe. It is a platform you straddle and swing with a 9 lb maul down between your legs, driving back a long steel beam (160 lbs) to the end of the "sled" (5 feet)4. Carrying a high rise pack (a load of hose that weighs 46.5 lbs) up 3 stories in a tower (23 and a half vertical feet), and then descending the tower again.5. Crawling on the ground and climbing over a sawhorse, and continuing to crawl, before turning back around and crawling on your belly under the saw horse. (60 feet total) 6. Dragging a 165 lb dummy 50 feet to the finish line.

My time was 4 minutes and 4 seconds. I hope to shave off a minute the next time I do it. And another minute the next time, and so on. I think the record in our department is around 2 minutes. Don't quote me, I'll find out for sure. The guy with the record is actually on my crew.

The actual Firefighter's Combat Challenge (sponsored by Scott Air) is a competitive national/international event. Competition events include a stair climb with a high-rise pack, hose hoist, forcible entry, hose advance, and a victim rescue. So, somewhat similar to our PAT. I'd love to compete in this some day, even if only on a local or statewide level. The world record is held by a guy from Kansas who got a time of 1 minute and 19.02 seconds.

Octopussoir wrote:Hey buddy, That seems like it would be a challenge but a blast at the same time.

If thats what you want... a faster time then keep that in your mind everyday and strive towards it.

Thanks for the encouragement. I talked to a guy on my crew today who has done a Firefighter's Combat Challenge in Virginia Beach, but it was more of a relay, where there are teams of 5 firefighters and each one does an event and passes off a rod to the next one. He and I talked about getting a team together for this year. I'm just not sure I'm where I need to be right now to be competitive enough. We'll see though. We'll each pick and event and start practicing. At least that's what they did last time.

most people i know cook their yams. :p you can stir fry them like carrots, lightly coat them with olive oil and/or soy sauce or spicy lime juice and toss them in the oven, or boil/steam them and mash them.

in case it matters to you, those nature valley granola bars aren't vegan, 'cause they have honey in em.

i agree with octo about getting better times. one way i aproach it is to do one set/round of something with decently heavy weight timed, then go do something else, then repeat and try to beat my first times. it works pretty good for me.

vivalasvegans wrote:in case it matters to you, those nature valley granola bars aren't vegan, 'cause they have honey in em.

Yeah, I'm generally not very strict about the honey thing. Plus I was REALLY hungry and I didn't have any more food with me. The granola bar was given to me by a co-worker.

01-23-2010

2 hours of Wing Chun class. I caught an elbow right dead center in my ear. It felt like someone drove a nail into my ear canal Oh well, I guess it was karma, due to nearly breaking a training partner's nose in the last class. I felt horrible about it, but sometimes that's just not enough

I would like to go to the gym today, but I got off work this morning and went straight to Wing Chun class. I'm gonna TRY to take a nap, and then see how I feel afterwards.

50 pushups. Didn't make it to the gym after my nap, it closed at 5. Had to do something though.

MaryStella wrote:those long shifts and changing sleep patterns have got to be super tough on your body.

Honestly its awful. I think sleep is probably the weakest part of my overall equation. 2 or more calls after midnight can ruin you for the entire next day. Some days I come home in the morning and sleep for 3 to 4 hours and feel too crappy to do anything else that day.

EDIT: I don't want that to come off as "I hate my job" or anything. But lack of sleep is the definite downside.

Thanks Jason. Yes the PAT is cool, but there is a lot of pressure involved leading up to it. There's a dichotomy that I have to cope with here at work. People think being vegan is silly, yet at the same time, they assume that since I am vegan that I'm some health and fitness guru. There was a lot of pressure on me by people in this department when I did the PAT, and many people were suprised that I didn't do it faster. It was just implemented at the time, so I didn't want to go balls out until I knew what to expect from it. Oh well. Next time I'll blow the time out of the water and shut some mouths.